Beauty queens jazz up Archana Kochhar's LFW show

Mumbai, Aug 17 (IANS) From former Miss World Diana Hayden to former Miss Indias Celina Jaitely and Parvathy Omanakuttan -- a host of beauty queens were seen supporting Archana Kochhar when she presented her collection Urban Yogini at the Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive here.

In fact, the designer's showstopper was former Miss India Ankita Shorey, who sashayed down the ramp in a long burnt orange cocktail dress that had traces of black.

'Archana's garments are very wearable and that's what I love about the collection. I felt great walking the ramp. The orange is the hero of the entire collection. It stands out,' said Ankita.

If that was not enough to glamourise the show, Kochar had other celebrities like Ayesha Takia, Bhagyashree, Shama Sikand, Mimoh Chakroborty and Arjan Bajwa to add glitz to her event.

'I have all my wonderful friends to support me here. I am so honoured and grateful to them for being here for me. When I called them, that time I did not realise that most of them are Miss Indias. I realise that now,' Kochhar told reporters here.

Throwing light on her collection, she said: 'This was for the first time that I did a pret line and I did cocktail wear. This was the first time I did garments without bling. So I was nervous because I always thought that I cannot handle garments without embellishments, but I finally did it.'

'This collection was inspired by the urban woman and the silhouettes were from dresses to jumpsuits to kurtas with skirts. I used slate grey, burnt orange, black and ivory,' she added.

She used fabrics like georgette, Italian jersey, raw silk and organza for the ensemble.

Ayesha Takia said of Kochhar's work: 'I loved the collection. I'm not a person who wears orange too much, but I'm surprised to see that I absolutely loved the orange garments in the collection. It was totally rocking.'